


Breath of the Wild: Field of Promise

by HanzoNoKoi



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 00:45:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16863073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanzoNoKoi/pseuds/HanzoNoKoi
Summary: Begins immediately after Ganon has been sealed away and Zelda asks that heart-breaking question to which we never get an answer (ere go this little ditty).





	Breath of the Wild: Field of Promise

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is just a short one-off. After this, I am thinking of doing a series on the memories and extending/expounding on them. But both are just to get some stuff off my chest because I am SO angry that Nintendo of America screwed us by changing the fact that, in Breath of the Wild, Link has a journal in the Japanese version that is written in the 1st person and gives him much more depth and character. I understand that they wanted Link to be a “blank slate” so that players can RP him however they like, but did they not think we could handle Link with even the basics of emotion and thought?? I feel totally robbed now because we got this flat, wooden Link compared to the original. Even the Russian version got the 1st person journal. WTH. If you’re curious, just search any form of “Japanese Breath of the Wild Link Journal.”
> 
> Disclaimer: I own none of the characters. This is just to scratch an itch; an itch that might not have existed had we received the original text. Excuse my poetic license taken.

Breath of the Wild: Field of Promise

“May I ask…do you really remember me?”

Zelda stood, hands clasped, as much as in hope as it was due to the fact that she was feeling the breeze on her skin for the first time in one hundred years and she had forgotten the sensation, any sensation, making her unwittingly close in on herself. Dusk was falling, and the sun was setting behind Link, who stood a few paces before her. His face, so close, seemed familiar and distant all at once. The last time she looked upon him, his expression was of anguish, pain, sorrow, regret…but in this moment, he quietly, unblinkingly stared at her. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath all the while waiting for his reply, until at last he spoke.

“I’m sorry, Princess….” he finally said.

Zelda felt herself deflate. She had waited so long to hear his voice again, and in that time, hoping beyond hope that the pieces of his regained memories would become whole. Now, exposed to the elements, standing on her own two feet; was free of the suspension and stasis she was held in for a hundred years with only her mind actively and forcibly fighting yet containing the Beast. And she felt the weight of her body once more, and with his words, an even greater gravity. 

As she finally let out the breath she had been holding, her knees began to tremble and buckle from under her. She collapsed, holding herself upright with only her arms bracing against the earth, her head bowed down.

And just as before, he was there. 

She felt him kneeling before her. 

“I’m sorry…that I left you to fight him alone for these long years,” he continued.

Zelda slowly lifted her head. The sun was behind him now as she locked eyes with him, his face cast in shadow. But it was there—that gleam she had once known. The way he used to look at her from the time he was appointed as her Knight, even with her stubborn defiance at his constant presence, to the last time she held his gaze as he had lain in her arms….

“You do remember then…? She asked, her voice lilting upwards, afraid to step on the precipice once more but unable to hold herself from doing just that.

“Yes,” he replied, simply, “all of it. Urbosa, Mipha, Daruk, Revali….and you…thank you for giving them back to me.”

He extended his hand that had been resting on his bent knee. She slowly placed her hand in his. Touch. All she had known for a century was being cocooned in a void; a raging, choking, undulating mass that threatened to consume her at any moment if she let her guard down. Sometimes, when she had reached out to Link after his awakening, Ganon would use the lapse to gather his own strength further. She had to clamp down extra hard to bring him back to recession. But each time, she knew she was growing weaker. 

But that was all gone now. All she needed to focus on was the warmth of Links hand holding hers, as it gave her more and more assurance that the nightmare was finally over. As she reveled in the sensation, she felt her whole body being tugged in as Link pressed her against his chest and threw his other arm over her. 

“How…how did you fight him for so long?” he asked, his face pressed against the top of her head.

Zelda was stunned at first. She felt as if she were being clutched, hard; his grip on her hand was tight in what felt like desperation. 

“I told you. I always believed you would return. And that we would fight him together as we were meant to. I just needed to wait a little while.” She relaxed into his protective embrace, hardly believing that he would hold her like this again, but this time without the tears of loss and failure. 

“I should have been protecting you. But you were protecting us all this time,” he said softly into her hair.

“The very reason we lost our family and friends, that our people had to suffer, that you lost your precious memories, was because I was too late. But it was you who gave me the chance to make things right again. If you hadn’t been with me back then, at that moment, if you had actually listened to me every time I told you to go away, the power would never have been bestowed upon me…”

Link closed his eyes. He remembered it all. The pain, both hers and his. Her feelings of failure, and his own, as the sight of her faded from his eyes on that field where he had fallen.

“Promise me, Link," she continued"—That I won’t have to see your back again, with you standing before me, putting yourself in harm’s way. I don’t think I could take it. Promise me that you will stand alongside me from now on.” 

She pulled apart from his warmth and looked up at his clear, blue eyes, imploring.

“Is this a royal decree?” asked Link, but with a lightness in his voice that she had rarely heard before.

“As things stand, I’m far from issuing a royal anything to anyone. But it’s a request I want to make of you.” If one hundred years and the end of all things didn’t give her the courage to speak her heart, then nothing would. “You are…the dearest thing I have left in this world. I cannot lose you again.” 

Link’s face turned hot but he could not, would not, steal away from her gaze. 

“I promise you, I will remain by your side.” 

She smiled. The smile he had been waiting and wanting to see for so long. As the Deku Tree had said, it was like the sun.


End file.
